DF&F 52_9 Tarpon

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his Tarpon!

Tech Info - Watercolor , gouache and pastel on oatmeal stock. 10" x 12".

This week we went to the salt with hopes of warmer weather on the horizon. For those of you that are wondering, Jason has had a very hectic few weeks and should be caught up with his posts by the end of the weekend. So be sure to swing by his blog to check it out.


Pretty Straight forward with this one. I sketched in the tarpon and taped the perimeter off.

Next step was to lay in a very loose and colorful watercolor wash. You can see my palette in this shot. I rarely clean out the mixing areas. It helps to gray down the colors so they do not look like they are right out of the tube.

Once the wash dried a bit, I started with the gouache and roughed in the eye. 

Next was more gouache, leaning towards white with other colors added in. Just laying in the general values. (Sorry, some of the pictures were a bit out of focus. I did not realize it until later.)

Continuing with laying in gouache.

More layering and using a damp brush to quickly blend the gouache. Gouache dries quickly and allows me swiftly move from area to area blending and dropping in color.

My gouache palette is not cleaned out either. A quick spray of water and I can activate color.

Time to work on the eye. Almost done.

Time to pull the tape, step back and make any last minute adjustments. 

Added some pastel and my signature. Done.

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Prints are 8" x 10" reproduced on digital watercolor stock, signed and number. Each print comes with a signed certificate of authenticity.